Charles Wesley's Hebrew Psalter

Sefer Tehillim. Liber Psalmorum.
Edited and translated from Hebrew into Latin by Johannes Leusden.
London: Samuel Palmer, 1726. (BRA2611)

Inscribed “C. Wesley, Mar[ch] 1759,” this book of psalms in Hebrew and Latin was owned by Charles Wesley (1707–1788), the co-founder of Methodism. An additional inscription dated 1746 shows that the book had previously belonged to George Downing (c. 1729–1803), chaplain at Cheltenham and friend of the Countess of Huntingdon, an early Methodist supporter. Charles Wesley’s journal records that he and his brother John Wesley met Downing at a series of prayer meetings held at Lady Huntingdon’s house in the spring of 1759. Perhaps on one of these occasions Charles Wesley received this book from Downing. The upper cover of the book was also inscribed by Charles Wesley’s son, “Charles Wesley jun^r. 1776.”